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Magnetic Experiences

March 03, 2017

Staff enthusiasm is a key element of a great customer experience. Enthusiasm creates a more energetic, engaging location, and thus more interest and excitement for the customer. That leads to higher sales, and customer loyalty and pro-active advocacy.

A colleague of mine once said that enthusiasm can make a bologna sandwich seem like filet mignon. That may be a bit of a stretch, but enthusiasm will definitely make one store's bologna sandwich more appealing than another's.

Enthusiasm doesn't just happen. It is the result of leadership. Charles Schwab, the well-known businessman, once said that his ability to arouse enthusiasm was his greatest asset.

Here are three ways to create an even more enthusiastic staff and customer experience:

1. Demonstrate your appreciation. People are more enthusiastic about their work and their customers when they feel appreciated by their employer. As a leader, you need to make sure you're truly demonstrating your appreciation, not just thinking it.

Challenge yourself to do one or more things each day to demonstrate your appreciation. Consider writing them down at the end of day for an entire month. You might be pleasantly surprised how much you do, or you might learn you’re thinking it more than showing it.

2. Purposeful cheering. Encouraging your team is important to developing enthusiasm. Focusing your encouragement makes sure your team is enthusiastic about what matters to customers, and helps create the desired results. You can never go wrong when you cheer an employee's actions as they relate to the customer's experience.

3. Keep the employee experience fresh. Imagine if every time a customer came into the store nothing had changed from the previous visit. Same products. Same offers. Same everything. It wouldn't be long before that customer got bored and started doing business elsewhere.

The same thing can happen to your staff. Sure, products and offers change, but what is new and different for the people? Do you create new and exciting ways to grow and develop? Do you change up your Take Fives (staff huddles) and meetings to make them fun and different? (Or worse, have you drifted away from doing them?)

Norman Vincent Peale said, "There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment." Ultimately, a staff's enthusiasm level and accomplishments are a measurement of the leadership team's effectiveness.

So let me ask, how would you score yours?

How to use this article

Discuss with your management how the enthusiasm level is in your company/location. What do you see and hear associates do that demonstrates their enthusiasm? Where do you see opportunities for them to be even more enthusiastic?

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About Doug: Doug Fleener, the former director of retail for Bose Corporation, is a speaker and consultant known for bring fresh approaches and powerful actionable ideas to clients and audiences around the world. Learn more at DougFleener.com.

January 27, 2017

A good friend of mine is a super smart guy. He's a walking and talking encyclopedia, but many people never guessed he's so smart.

You see, he had this habit of saying "umm" or "uhh" when he spoke. So much so that he came across as being very insecure in his thinking. He was unaware of this habit until I pointed it out to him, and the impact it had on how people perceived him.

In addition to "umm" and "uhh" there are two other words I hear people use with customers that negatively impact sales and the customer's service experience

"Can I ...." Two seemingly innocent words, but when you start a question with "Can I" you're starting by asking permission. And chances are, whatever you're asking permission for is something you should be doing for your customer without asking.

"Can I get the door for you?"

"Can I show you something else?"

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"Can I carry that to your car?"

Let's turn those requests for permission into statements, just by replacing "Can I" with "Let me."

"Let me get the door for you."

"Let me show you...."

"Let me get you something to drink."

"Let me carry that to your car."

The customer can always decline your offer, but most of the time he/she will be delighted that you're proactively offering your help.

By the way, my friend was able to break the "umm" and "uhh" habit by asking his friends and colleagues to point out whenever he did it. The change didn't happen right away, but with the help of others he no longer does it. I'm excited, because now everyone else gets to experience the guy I know.

So let me ask, is asking “Can I” getting in the way of you delivering an even better customer experience?

How to use this article

As a group, listen to what each of you say to your customers, and point out afterwards if the person used "Can I" when "Let me" would have resulted in a better service experience.

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About Doug: Doug Fleener, the former director of retail for Bose Corporation, is a speaker and consultant known for bring fresh approaches and powerful actionable ideas to clients and audiences around the world. Learn more at DougFleener.com.

January 10, 2017

I define the customer experience as the perceptions, emotions, actions and reactions a customer has with your people, products, and environment. Environment can be a store, office, website, etc.

Combined, these elements meet, exceed, or fall short of your customer’s expectations. That determines if, and how much, a customer makes a purchase, advocates for you and your company to others, and will continue to do business with you.

That’s why well-defined and well-executed experiences can be so magnetic. Magnetic experiences attract new customers and keep current customers coming back. Both are vital for continued success in today’s ultra-competitive and rapidly evolving market.

How do you make your customer experience more magnetic? The answer varies from company to company, and even location to location. What doesn’t vary is the fact that if you’re not obsessed about making your customer experience more magnetic you’re at risk of losing current customers, and are less likely to replace them.

Here are the questions that I ask when leading strategy sessions to identify opportunities to make a customer experience even more magnetic. Choose one or two, and use it/them for a brainstorming session.

Involve as many people at different levels of your company as possible. Your frontline staff brings an important perspective and voice to the conversation. Brainstorm as many answers as possible, and then determine their validity and potential impact on your customer experience and results.

1) How can we make it easier for customers to do business with us?

2) How can we save our customer time?

3) How can we add value to a customer’s purchase and/or life?

4) What do we do, and/or start doing for customers that other companies can’t or won’t?

5) What is really special and unique about our company and customer experience?

6) How do we, and/or what can we do, to make our customer feel special and appreciated?

7) Why might a customer choose to stop doing business with us?

8a) What do we want a customer to tell others about us?

8b) What different things do we do, or can we do, to make sure that happens?

9) Where is the biggest gap between what we say we do, and what our customer actually experiences?

10) If our biggest competitor put a store/office right next door to us, what would we do to make sure people walks in our door?

End the brainstorming session with a list of actions (not ideas) you and your team can take immediately. One change rarely makes your custom experience more magnetic, but a series of small improvements will make a big difference in the people and the targeted experience.

So let me ask, how much more magnetic can your customer experience be?

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Doug Fleener, the former director of retail for Bose Corporation, is a speaker and consultant known for bring fresh approaches and powerful actionable ideas to clients and audiences around the world. Learn more at DougFleener.com.